Copying Adobe Apps from External Hard Drive

[Geobop]

I want to upgrade the OS on my Mac from Sierra to Mojave. However, rather than do a typical upgrade, I want to erase everything on my hard drive and do a fresh install, effectively deleting a variety of crap that has accumulated on my hard drive, including some old software programs I no longer use.

My Question: Rather than start from scratch and download Dreamweaver, Photoshop and all the other programs I use via CreativeCloud, is there a way I can simply copy the files from my external hard drive to my internal hard drive (now running Mojave)? I assume I would begin by copying the Adobe files in my Applications folder. Where are the related files located?

Thanks.

[Daniel E Lane · Accepted solution]

You could, but they most likely will not work correctly. With a fresh install on the hard drive, you'd be better off anyway with a fresh install of all of your Adobe applications as well, done through the CC console.

[Geobop]

Sounds good. Thanks.

[Abambo]

As installing software is more than just copying data from a source, it will not work. You can however prepare your coup by downloading the software beforehand and installing without the download overhead. It’s just shifting the download to a different moment.